Mayor, Council reach deal to expand protections for rent-regulated tenants

The City Council and Mayor Bill de Blasio have reached a deal on legislation that would expand protections for rent-regulated tenants who are being harassed by landlords eager to move them out, renovate and charge much higher rents.

The bill, which is being finalized this week after being negotiated for a year, establishes a pilot program mandating that property owners whose buildings have recurring housing code violations, or recently changed ownership, acquire a "certificate of no harassment" in neighborhoods undergoing rezonings as well as targeted low-income neighborhoods. Council member Brad Lander, a Brooklyn Democrat, pushed the administration to commit to expanding the law as part of the Council's approval of an affordable housing policy in 2016.

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"When a speculator's plan is to harass the tenants out, demolish [or] gut renovate and bring in tenants who can pay triple the rents, we need a law that prevents their ability to do it," Lander said in an interview.

Currently, the city only requires owners to receive the certificates in one district within the Hell's Kitchen part of Manhattan and single-room occupancy apartments, or SROs.

Since Lander began pushing for the expanded protections, a task force of Council members, city officials, housing advocates and real estate industry representatives have met to hammer out a law that would effect change without overwhelming the housing department by enforcing too broad a requirement.

Lander, who worked in the affordable housing industry before being elected to office, said harassment of tenants is a heightened concern when a traditionally low-cost neighborhood undergoes gentrification. The cycle repeats itself throughout the city: Speculators buy property in anticipation of rising values and find ways to flip rent-stabilized buildings into market-rate apartments.

"Unfortunately for unscrupulous landlords in neighborhoods with rapidly rising rents, harassment is too often part of the business plan," Lander said. "Those can be neighborhoods facing a big up-zoning or facing rapid gentrification. And in those cases, our current anti-harassment tools just don't do enough."

The bill is expected to pass at a Council meeting on Nov. 30, when a rezoning of East Harlem is also slated to get approval. That area would fall under the new program, as would East New York and Far Rockaway — the two other neighborhoods the city has rezoned to enable more residential development.

As more areas are rezoned, they too will be covered by this measure during the pilot program, Lander said.

The legislation takes into account harassment dating back five years prior to filing an application for the certificate.

"We're using every tool we can to fight harassment and keep tenants in their homes," de Blasio spokeswoman Melissa Grace said. "This new bill will help us stop more owners of distressed buildings from pushing out long-time residents."

The bill comes as de Blasio has revamped his housing plan to expand the number of low- and moderately-priced apartments the city will subsidize by 50 percent.

It is also being passed as the Council is working on legislation to create a central database of the legal definitions of tenant harassment, which include denying heat and hot water, performing constant, loud construction and repeatedly filing nonpayment actions against tenants.